South Africa’s national standards for spatial information were gazetted at the end of June 2026 under the Spatial Data Infrastructure Act, the legislation that established the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure, or Sasdi. The country now has one agreed way to capture, maintain and share spatial data. Why this could be worth a percentage point of GDPGetting this foundation right — a shared language for location, captured once and trusted everywhere — could in our view add as much as a percentage point to South Africa’s GDP over time. Whether South Africa captures the percentage point on the table now rests with the data custodians, the municipalities and the businesses that choose to act. To begin a spatial data standards assessment, contact the AfriGIS team via www.afrigis.co.za.